Fast Food Favs

In my pre-pregnancy days, I tried to limit my intake of fast food. After all, fast food is known for being high in fat, calories and sugar. Now that I am under doctor's orders to eat hamburgers and milkshakes, I have become quite a fast food connoisseur! After careful analysis (and multiple samples) I have come up with a list of my favorites:

• Favorite burger on a budget: Jack in the Box Jumbo Jack (600 calories, 21 g protein)
• Favorite french fries: McDonald's (180 calories, 4 g protein)
• Favorite milkshake: Jack-in-the-Box Chocolate Oreo Shake (910 calories, 14 g protein)
• Favorite chicken nuggets: Chick-fil-a Chicken Nuggets 8 ct (260 calories, 26 g protein)
• Favorite breakfast sandwich: McDonald's Bacon, Egg and Cheese McGriddle (460 calories, 19 g protein)
• Favorite drink: Chick-fil-a Large Lemonade (390 calories, 0 g protein) (side note: they also have diet lemonade which is just as good, when you aren't trying to pack in the calories!)
• Favorite burrito: Taco Bell Burrito Supreme with two sides of red sauce and three mild sauce packets poured on top (420 calories, 17 g protein)

Hopefully I won't grow too accustomed to all this fast food, so that I will eventually be able to lose the 75-100 lbs I am in the process of gaining!!

Quick update on me and the babies:

I am 20.5 weeks now and so far both me and the babies are still doing great! I have started using a home contraction monitor twice a day for an hour. The device counts my contractions and then sends the data via the phone lines to a group of nurses who call me and tell me how well I did. (Isn't modern technology amazing?) So far my average number of contractions per hour has been 0.64. The doctor said that as long as my average stays under 3.5 for the week, they won't have to intervene with drugs. I have another doctors appointment on Monday, so I should know more after that!

Fast Food Favs

The Diet

When I first contacted Dr. Elliott in Arizona, he put me on a diet. I have been on many diets in my lifetime, but this diet is like no other. I am supposed to eat 5000 calories a day of, and I quote, "junk food and red meat." The goal, according to the doctor, is for me to gain 75-100 lbs by the time I deliver. Since the babies will soon be occupying much of the space where my stomach is supposed to be, I was instructed to gain 75% of the required amount by 26 weeks. I was ordered to eat Big Macs and milkshakes and shun everything low-fat. I was told that salads are a waste, because they take up space and have too few calories. Hearing these words come out of a doctor's mouth was almost as shocking as hearing that I was carrying five babies!

At first, the diet seemed pretty great---I could eat all the chocolate and ice cream I wanted with no guilt! But the excitement wore off pretty quickly after the first few days, and I actually find it pretty difficult to eat that many calories. I am also supposed to eat 20% of the calories from protein, which doesn't seem too bad until you figure that 20% of 5000 calories amounts to about 250 grams of protein per day. So I guess it is kind of like the Atkins diet and the Seefood diet (everything you see, you eat) mixed together.

The doctor based his diet regimen on a book by Dr. Barbara Luke entitle, "When You're Expecting Twins, Triplets, and Quads" (yes, I know it doesn't include quints, but no book does---trust me, I have looked). Amazingly enough, Dr. Luke actually has data that shows that by following her eating plan, babies have higher birth weights and fewer problems than other babies of the same gestational age.

Anyway, I guess I am off to have another hot fudge brownie sundae----after all, I want to do what is best for these babies :-)

The Diet